The Third Sorceress War: Part 6: Sorceress Clash
by Hyne's Knight
Summary: Battle at Tears' Point ends. Rinoa and Andora face off.


Laguna, Kiros, and Ward were all suited up and prepared to fight Karisto, when a messenger came rushing through the door. He was bleeding slightly, and was obviously bringing news straight from the battlefield. "It appears that the Centra Army is starting to pull back, sir!" he said, surprising and pleasing Laguna greatly. Laguna thanked the messenger, and sent him to find out more after he got his wounds taken care of. Laguna was very intrigued to find out why this had happened, and went back to his library to try and find out more.  
  
Back at Tears' Point, the SeeD and Esthar were easily defeating the Galbadians, when they heard a slow rumble, off in the distance. All of the armies froze, and looked off to the North where the sound seemed to have originated. When they had waited for a few minutes, a few bits of shiny metallic objects shot up out of the ground, and slowly formed into Shumi Duct Crawlers. The Esthar and SeeD were surprised to see them, but were glad nonetheless. The Galbadians began to pull back, and the SeeD allowed them to do so. The Esthar wanted to pursue, but knew that the SeeD and Shumi wouldn't be very pleased if they did, and may even attack them for doing it, so they stayed put. The SeeD sent their messenger this time, to tell Laguna about the events. Upon hearing this, Laguna began to understand why the Centrans had pulled out. According to an old legend he had found in his travels, during the Sorceress War, when Karisto would rise up against Centra's oppressors, a powerful Holy Army would appear from the North, and spell disaster for Centra. Laguna was very pleased that the Shumi helped him, because he knew how much they feared Sorcery. Laguna immediately sent for the Elder to come and visit him, so he could offer a proper thanks for the reinforcement of hope. The Elder came, bringing along a large group of his Shumi advisors, who had all met Laguna in the past. The old friends celebrated for quite some time, completely oblivious to the occurances out in the distant Great Plains.  
  
The Sorceress grinned evily when she saw the group of SeeDs arise from the hole that one of her lackies had made. General Caraway was completely stunned to see his daughter in such a place, and begged Sorceress Andora to have mercy on her, and only her. Rinoa was shocked to find her father serving such an evil person, and glared at him to hide how much she wanted to just be able to agree with him on anything that either of them did.Nevertheless, Andora stepped forward, still with the same evil grin, and prepared to annihilate the pathetic humans, or so she thought. Squall and Seifer stepped into her path, which seemed to be toward Rinoa, and the terrible Sorceress Battle began. Seifer leaped forward at Andora, and was hit in midair by a Thundaga spell. Raijin and Fujin quickly moved to aid Seifer, as Quistis, Irvine, and Selphie moved to intercept Andora. The group of angered SeeDs moved forward, with Irvine and Rinoa behind them shooting and casting miscellaneous spells. Squall slashed hard, missing barely, while Selphie and Quistis followed up. Selphie manged to nick the Sorceress with her Crescent Wish, and Quistis hit her dead on with the Red Scorpion. The Sorceress fell back slightly, and cast an Ultima spell on Selphie and Quistis. Squall took the oppurtunity to take another dash, and successfully slashed the Sorceress across the stomach, shredding her flashy outfit, and deeply angering her. Facing imminent defeat, the Sorceress opened up her bag of tricks, and cast a powerful Tornado spell. The brutal wind caused all of the warriors to fall to the edge of the Pandora, except for Rinoa, who shot into the air with huge Angel Wings. Going into an absolute frenzy, Rinoa cast Apocalypse, which she had acquired from Ultimecia, on Andora. Sorceress Andora was shocked, as she had no idea that there were ANY other Sorceressses, and especially none that were this powerful.  
  
Andora knew she would have a very hard time with this one. She jutted out her own magical wings, of dragon like proportions, and launched a huge fireball at Rinoa. Rinoa cast a Reflect just in time, which caused the fireball to hurtle back at Andora, accelerating to twice it's original speed. Andora absorbed the fireball, which increased her strength greatly. Rinoa was stunned by this, but continued all the same, by firing a Meteor spell at Andora. Rinoa cast float on all of her allies, her were barely clinging to the edges of the Pandora, to help them for a while. Andora cast Maelstrom on Rinoa, which caught her by surprise, and knocked her back a few feet. Andora slowly moved forward, casting a continuous Thundaga spell on Rinoa. Rinoa countered with a Bio spell, which Andora hated very much. Andora went into a slight rage, and hastily cast Holy on Rinoa. This was the chance Rinoa had been waiting for, as she folded her Angel Wings over her body, absorbing the massive Holy energy, and increasing her energy ten fold. Andora glared at Rinoa, and shouted out at her, "Your fate is in my hands now!" Rinoa paused momentarily after hearing this, and gawked at Andora, who rose into the air and began to cover herself with massive scales. Andora now looked similar to a Ruby Dragon, only a darker color and much bigger. She flared up a blazing beam if energy, and fired it at Rinoa. Rinoa was unable to dodge the hit, and was launched backwards quite a ways. Rinoa lie on the roof of the Lunatic Pandora, dazed, and losing hope. Squall pulled his head up to the top, so he could see the goings on. What he saw shot an arrow of anger and hatred deep into his soul, piercing any remorse that he once carried for Andora, and supplying him with a great power beyond that of any Sorceress, or anyone else for that matter. Squall shot up on top of the Pandora, and redrew the Lionheart. He glared at Andora, in the most hateful rage imaginable. Andora slipped out of her dragon form, and returned to her Sorceress form. Squall stared directly at her, piercing her body, and destroying her without even taking action. He began to pulse with energy, and he slowly moved forward, still with the same powerful gaze he had from the beginning. A large mass of light hovered around Squall's body, like a beacon of salvation to a dying world. He drew up the Lionheart, and slashed Andora harder than either of them could possibly imagine him doing. Andora fell lifelessly to the ground, and lie there for a brief time. Squall stood over her, Lionheart in hand, waiting for her to move even a single twitch. Rinoa woke from her unconsciousness, and saw Squall hovering over Andora's body. She ran over to Squall, and hugged him tightly from behind. Squall's angry gaze broke away, and immediately turned into a loving smile. He turned and pulled Rinoa close, both of them ignoring all the chaos around them, and thinking only of each other, enjoying the moment. The rest of the SeeDs all climbed back to the roof, and went back into the hole from which they came, to wait for Rinoa and Squall. Andora's body slowly rose into the air, and stiffly spread out, still lifeless. A strange voice came out of nowhere, bringing Rinoa and Squall into a stunned state, attempting to find the source. "You are much more powerful than I imagined," the voice said, which was getting clearer all the time. "I never believed that Andora, my favorite pawn, would be defeated in such a fashion... however, I will not go down so easily..." 


End file.
